NOTES for Jer 32:40
God's plan for the salvation of people perishing in their slavery to sin, is opened to the prophets, but they don’t succeed at once "to fumble" the exact verbal expression of God's revelation. It turns out that they complement each other, and in result forms what, of which the apostle Peter will say later: "all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." (Acts of the Apostles 3:24). Here is, and in this sentence the prophet Jeremiah quotes some very important details of God’s intention. Salvation will be proposed as a covenant, an agreement, which one can enter only voluntarily. The covenant will be eternal, that is God promises His faithfulness to the covenant independently of our faithfulness or unfaithfulness, independently of which time and in which country we live, because God Himself will undertake the task of our "non retreat" from Him: He promises to do something with our hearts so that they become able to pure and faithful relations. The prophet calls this action "the putting of the fear of God", later and to Jeremiah, and to the other prophets there will be other formulations, but this one is also very important. Indeed, the fear of God is in no way the same that the fear of pain or the fear of death, it is the devout awe before the Inconceivable and the desire to remain near the Loving and the Loved One.